Preserve rare tribal cultures: Mein

Published: Friday, December 21, 2007, 12:04 [IST]

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Itanagar, Dec 21 (UNI) Arunachal Pradesh Rural Development Minister Chowna Mein has asserted that research scholars need to go deep into the rich tribal culture in order to unexplore various aspects of the different societies.

Addressing the state level awareness campaign-cum-training programme for the district coordinators at the launch of the National Mission for Manuscripts (NMM) here yesterday, the minister exhorted the scholars to enrich the heritage of different tribes through their writings and translated versions, official sources said here today.

He called upon the officers and trainees under the NMM to scour the entire state, collecting as many manuscripts as possible and hoped that the training programme would facilitate preservation of manuscripts, besides promoting research and survey.

Referring to the Tai Khamptis' centuries-old written scripts, including the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the minister informed that rare artefacts and manuscripts were presently preserved in museum.

He further stressed the need to motivate people to donate the ancient written notes and manuscripts to museums to preserve them for posterity.

Mr Mein hoped that the preservation of manuscripts would benefit the research scholars and others through translation into other languages.

He regretted that the ancient practice of teaching written scripts in monasteries was a dying art and unless steps were taken to preserve it, it might be lost forever.

Mr Mein also called for the administration's attention to the research department and hoped that with the keen interest being shown by Arunachal Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu, the department would receive due support from the state government.